Taxpayers Can Claim Victory in Budget Deal

Late Monday night the final budget measure for the current fiscal year was revealed, illustrating how much the universe of government spending has changed since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. Rather than continue the government bloat of the previous years, House Leadership secured almost $40 billion in savings for taxpayers, who are the real winners in this year’s budget fight. The measure will save billions more in the long term, permanently dialing back the spending baselines inflated by years of wasteful “stimulus” and bailout spending.

After fighting for unprecedented spending cuts in Continuing Resolutions in the first half of the fiscal year, the funding deal nets $38.5 billion in cuts for the entire year. This is almost $80 billion less than what President Obama and Congressional Democrats had hoped to be spending over this time. The plan targets mandatory spending as well, ending wasteful agriculture subsidies and rescinding monies from the Highway Trust Fund. The deal dismantles pieces of the costly health care overhaul, including a $6 billion plan for state-run health insurance plans. Consistent with the House Republicans’ pledge to end the status quo, the plan rescinds billions in earmark spending as well.

“This deal represents a down payment on the prudence we will see under a Republican-controlled House of Representatives,” Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said. “After witnessing the disastrous spending of a Democrat-controlled Congress, taxpayers sent Republicans to Washington in hopes that they could get it right. This spending deal represents leadership by conservatives who actually believe in smaller government - rather than waiting for the release of their 2012 budget to start the spending debate, House Republicans got straight to work cutting spending this year. This final deal in the fight for restraint in FY 2011 shows House Republicans are not only willing to lead, but ready to fulfill the promises of smaller government and less spending that they made to taxpayers last fall.”